Hungarians don’t trust the news media

Hvg.hu writes that the general mistrust towards Hungarian media is getting worse and worse, as it turnes according to the Digital News Media Report 2017, which was presented last week on the GEN Summit, a conference about media innovation.

According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the Hungarian government increased its direct control over the media in 2016 with changes in ownership, distribution of state advertising and campaigns against external and internal critical voices.

“The public service media news is strongly pro-government, with critical voices barely present and factual errors frequent, while the online sphere is still vibrant and plural, with a wide range of political and news portals/blogs operating.”

One of the consequences of the process that has been going on in the Hungarian media industry is that the country has fallen into the group of lagmen concerning media trust. According to the survey, the overall trust in news media is only 31% in Hungary, while it is 62% in the case of Finland, which is in the lead. However, 53% of news consumers trust the sources they choose to get information from, which is the indicator of the polarised situation.

Only 11% of Hungarians think that the Hungarian media is free from political influence. This rate has decreased by 3% in the last year. Regarding this aspect, Hungary is the 35^th (last but one) on the list.

Most people get information from the internet. Television as a news source is stagnating, the print is dying, while social media is flourishing.

Concerning devices, the computer is still strong with 71%, the use of smartphones has increased by 6% and the use of tablets has also increased by a few percent. The top social media and messaging platforms include Facebook, YouTube and Facebook Messenger.

Based on the international data, it’s interesting that 24% of users think that social media helps in distinguishing facts from fiction, while 40% of people think the same about mainstream online media.

Ce: bm

Source: http://hvg.hu/